Janet Shook LaCoste was a San Antonio artist, known for her work as a fiber artist and designer. Her archives are in the Research Collections of the Smithsonian Institute, as part of the Archives of American Art's Texas project. Correspondence in the archives focuses primarily on letters to and from Lady Bird Johnson, about commissioned Texas wildflower needlepoint chair sets. A purchase prize in her name is given at the San Antonio Art League Museum.
In a 1980 essay by Amy Freeman Lee, it is noted that "In the field of painting, Janet devoted herself almost exclusively to the medium of watercolor. Water is definitely her element. She coped successfully with all the well-known challenges of the medium from that of its innate evanescence to its lack of opportunities to correct mistakes. As one reviews Janet's oeuvre, it becomes obvious that the solid foundation of the needlepoint designs, which were to form the apogee of her career and the basis of her international reputation, rests in the watercolors. One might even go so far as to say that these works not only comprise the fluid so essential to growth, but also the bridge to her future in the elegant field of needlepoint."
